


New Pearl

by Enbyparty



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Other, Trans Character, non-binary
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-15
Updated: 2016-12-27
Packaged: 2018-08-22 13:58:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8288155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enbyparty/pseuds/Enbyparty
Summary: Pearl and S. are HANGING OUT!incl Crying Breakfast Friends





	1. I don't even have a phone!

That night Pearl walked up to the top of the hill, around the lighthouse, and climbed down to sit just behind the head of the temple goddess.  
She crossed her legs, sat and watched the sky. The moon was slight; the stars strong.  
This was her secret; a space for the nights she wasn’t watching Steven, or discussing plans with Garnet in low voices. A space she’d cried in so much. A space she’d learned to love earth. A gush of wind touched her arms, ripple on light.  
Everything felt so big tonight. Everything felt possible.  
It was like this with Rose- at the beginning- Rose had seen so much in her. Training, flexing, dancing, piercing- so many new things Pearl had tried. Rose watching her. It was like everything had expanded. She could be a warrior. She could be an artist. Everything remained to be made. She could forge her own destiny. And there was love...  
The sea was a mass of darkness, still, calm. The lights of the boardwalk twinkled.  
A human! A human had laughed at what she’d said! A human had given her this... telephone number. How unexpected.  
They’d driven back late, Steven falling asleep in the back. Pearl whispering questions. Amethyst said this code meant a lot. It was a sign of interest; it was done by humans when they wanted to meet another. When they wanted to .. ‘date’. Pearl still didn’t fully grasp this concept.  
Something fizzed in Pearl’s stomach when she remembered how the girl’s hair had cascaded down as they talked. The girl drove a motorbike! She went to rock shows! She had pink hair! She had metal in her lip. Which, according to Amethyst, was cool.  
And. She wanted to meet Pearl. 

The next day, Garnet and Pearl went on a mission to the desert. Pearl was glad. She could forget about mystery girl, forget her ridiculous idea of spending time with this human. It probably would have gone wrong.  
Who could ever see her like Rose did? Who could ever understand?  
Even though there was something so tempting about talking to a human, who would know nothing of homeworld, nothing of Pearl’s history. Nothing of what Pearl had been- what she’d been made to be- what she’d failed to be.  
They chased corrupted gems across the ochre sand, dunes rising and falling. They met a person trudging along with an animal, who looked baffled to see them, and then wanted to touch them to see if they were real. When Pearl and Garnet took off, this human shouted something about angels.  
Walking back to the warp-pad, Garnet asked Pearl about the previous night.  
“...and I’ve never met a human who seemed this interesting before.”  
Garnet’s sunglasses flashed, hint of a smile.  
“But of course it was just that night. I don’t have time to fool around with humans! I have to train Steven, and Connie, to go on missions, to prepare for our next encounter with Jasper,” her voice rose, became shrill, “and to plan for the Diamonds’ attack!”  
Garnet grinned. “I can help you with training Steven and Connie. Make some time.”  
“But-“ Pearl spluttered. “You don’t think it’s a bad idea?”  
“Why would it be?”  
“Because! Because last time I was in love it was torture!” Pearl swallowed. “Because mystery girl has pink hair!”  
“Pearl.” Garnet turned to face her, her three eyes open. “This doesn’t have to be like this. You’ve grown. You’ve changed. She is a human; she will be very different.”  
“But what if it happens again!”  
“There is sometimes pain in loving. But we will be here to support you along the way. And if it works out, it could be great.” Garnet paused as the light flashed.  
They reappeared in the temple. Garnet touched Pearl’s shoulder, lightly. “You deserve to be happy, Pearl. You deserve to be loved.”  
Pearl stood stock still. Absorbing these words. Her eyes a little wet, she bowed her head in response.  
She walked to the kitchen and absently cleaned the counter.  
Finally she said,“I don’t even have a phone!”  
“I don’t think that will be a problem.” Garnet opened the door for Steven and Amethyst, both giggling, holding a black object. Steven handed it to Pearl while Amethyst chanted “pearl and mystery girl, pearl and mystery giiiirl”.


	2. First Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally, introductions.

“Sorry I’m late. My motorbike needed some care this morning.” Mystery Girl smiled broadly and took off her helmet, her hair cascading out, vibrant.

“It’s fine!” Pearl squealed. She’d been waiting there for half an hour. Only because Amethyst had told her it wasn’t cool to be too early. 

“So. We didn’t get to talk much on the phone. How are you doing?” Mystery Girl smiled. 

Pearl noticed her eyes again, lit up like the plants that snaked out from the ground and wrapped themselves around the temple in summertime.

“I’m fine! I played walo this morning with Steven and he is improving his tactical ability every day, although I’m still winning every game, of course.”

“Walo? Who’s Steven? The kid who was with you at the concert?”

“Yes, he’s my...” Pearl paused. “He’s the child of someone I loved. And walo is a gem game, a strategy battle.”

“I see. A gem game?” 

“Oh, right! you don’t know anything,” Pearl said.   
Then she spluttered, “Um, I mean, you do know things of course I’m sure, human things. But you don’t know anything about gems. Uh. I am a gem.”

“Okay...” Mystery girl was listening, attentive, frowning. 

“We are aliens! Gems are an alien species.”

“Oh.” Her eyes shone. “Wow. cool! okay. So I wanted to go check out this exhibition I told you about, but it looks like we might have some talking to do before. Wanna sit on the curb for a bit and chat?”

The concrete was hot and the sun everywhere. Mystery Girl leaned back and closed her eyes, taking it in. Pearl stared at her.   
When the human opened her eyes again, she laughed. 

“My name is Shuun. What’s yours?”

“Pearl. Oh, great, I can stop calling you Mystery Girl now!” Pearl smiled, nervous, and failed to notice something flashing across Shuun’s face.

“Uh, actually, I am not a girl.”

Pearl looked confused for a second.  
“Oh,” she said, “I am terribly sorry to have assumed. Um. So what –“

“Am I?” 

“Ye- yes?” 

“I’m non-binary. It means I am not a girl or a boy.” Shuun’s eyes bore into Pearl’s, serious. 

“Oh.” Pearl said. Humans who were neither women nor men? It had already been a struggle to understand the concept of gender. “I didn’t know there were more than two genders on earth!”

“Yep. There are.” Shuun shrugged, looking away from Pearl quickly.

Pearl heard the thin drum of Shuun’s heartbeat slow down. She didn't say anything. Waited for the human to talk again, watching half grown pink shoots of hair.

“What’s gender like for gems?” Shuun’s tone was casual, but beneath that Pearl could tell her answer would matter a lot.

“Well,” Pearl mused, “we don’t really have ‘gender’.” 

“Really?” Shuun’s eyes bulged. “What do you mean? Please tell me more! What pronoun do you use?”

Pearl felt slightly taken aback by the turn of the conversation. “I suppose I use ‘she’. And so do all the gems... It just seemed to fit best.” 

Shuun frowned. “So does that mean you identify with women?”

“I suppose it would be the closest thing, yes,” Pearl said, beginning to enjoy the reflection demanded of her. “I definitely do not, erm, ‘identify’ with men. I dont feel a strong belonging to any of this, though. I am a gem. That’s it.” 

“Wow.” Shuun grinned wide. 

Pearl felt heat radiate from the center of the human’s body.   
She’d never noticed this before. Was this normal? Was Shuun in danger?   
They stared at each other for a little bit, then suddenly realised what was happening and pulled back. Pearl’s cheeks soft turquoise. 

“My pronoun is ‘they’, by the way.” Shuun added. They whipped their hair behind their shoulder. A scent of earth flower remained there, tantalising. 

In fact, Pearl realised she’d been sensing something strange this whole time, and hadn’t quite put her finger on it. It was Shuun’s human smell, their heat. Steven smelled a bit like that, too, and Greg too- although his smell always made her want to take a step back (Rose had harboured wafts of it somedays). But Shuun’s was comfortable. 

“Wow. I have this conversation almost every day, you know?”

“This conversation?” Pearl frowned.

“No, I mean, the gender conversation! Explaining my gender to people. It’s really tiring.” Shuun sighed. “But it’s never been quite like this before.”

“Oh. I’m sorry. Is that... a good thing?”

“Yes! It’s like you come from a whole nother planet... You do come from a whole other planet. And you look so different and amazing. I’m just- I can’t really believe I’ve met you.” 

“Oh,” Pearl said again. “Um.” She wanted to return the compliment. To express her feelings. “You—I like your smell.” 

“Oh my god." Shuun's eyes turned to half moons, and then they giggled. "You’re such a gem.”


	3. Meetmorps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pearl and Shuun chat about art and swordfighting.

Eventually they left the sunshine and entered the library.  
A new exhibition filled the space. In the center of the room was a small glass dome, and inside it was a kind of paper city. 

The intense conversation they’d just had faded into the quiet of the space. 

The dome was host to intricate, huge paper structures that Pearl was proud to recognise as famous human landmarks (some of which inspired by gem architecture, of course, which she hurried to mention to Shuun). But the artist’s masterpiece was hung on the wall: a paper world, a huge house, tiny rooms, people and plants.  
Despite it being made of white paper you knew it was dusk, cobbled streets reflecting lamplight.  
A million things were happening inside: tiny people danced, played the fiddle, weaved, read, loved... One of cut-out rooms featured a swordfight. Pearl appreciated the angle of one of the fighters, but the other one could have improved their posture significantly, she explained to Shuun. 

Pearl and Shuun got lost examining the delicate bodies, their hats, the playful cat silhouettes here and there, the mastery of the work.  
Pearl felt she was in front of an incredible sort of Human Tapestry. What the Diamonds would have brought back to Homeworld as a trophy if they’d succeeded in hollowing the colony –if they’d cared enough about human culture. 

She felt a squeeze of affection towards humankind. (Probably a little related to the closest human to her, Shuun, who was gasping in joy at each detail they noticed in the art piece.)  
Pearl also felt proud. That she’d helped protect all this. 

Shuun seemed to be enjoying the exhibition.  
“I think something that throws me is how much work this must have taken, and yet it’s so fragile! It’s captured, safe, for now, but as soon as it’s out of this glass window it could tear into pieces. Disappear. I kind of appreciate that fleetingness.”

Pearl stared at them, taking in this commentary. Humans were fleeting, it's true. This was as sad as it was beautiful.

“I make visual art too," Shuun added, "but I do it on my computer, so it’s always saved.”

“Really? You make art?” 

Pearl got distracted, thinking of Lapis and Peridot’s ‘meetmorps’. She told Shuun the anecdote of her gem friends adapting to earth.  
“Gem society is made to be the most efficient possible. No one would create something that would not serve a purpose.”

“Hm. It sounds... cold. It must so different from Earth,” Shuun looked lost in thought. “I’d really love to see your friends’ creations.”

“I would like to see yours. What kind of- what do you make?” Pearl asked.

“They’re sort of graphic collages. Just me playing around with stock images. At the moment I’m experimenting with layers and moving things slightly so it blurs them. Destabilizing the eye.” Shuun paused. “I also do memes. Sometimes. Yeah. I can be kind of a nerd.” 

Pearl appreciated the soft glow that appeared on their cheeks, even though she had no idea what ‘stock images’ or ‘memes’ are. “Amethyst says I’m a nerd, too!”

Shuun smirks, crosses their arms. Like during that first conversation, they’re leaning in. In Pearl’s space. “Yeah. I figured. I mean, I don’t take every date to library exhibitions.”

Pearl felt something take flight in her insides. She resolved to add ‘date’ to the list of things she needed a thorough explanation of from Steven when she got home.

Pearl and Shuun wandered through the library, lost in conversation.  
Pearl watched Shuun, watched their neck, their hands and the graceful way they moved when talking, and felt shocked that she was enjoying a human’s company so much, that she felt so inspired by the human art, - that she felt comfortable enough to tell Shuun about swordfight. How she hadn’t been made for it. How she’d learnt her own capacity for resistance, her strength. How she’d begun inventing moves, letting her body take over, almost falling into dance, the sword an extension of her light, of her gem.  
She avoided mentioning Rose, or the war. Not yet. 

“Oh my god, do you know how cool you are?” Shuun spoke outloud as they stepped out of the library, the rich afternoon light illuminating their face, glinting off the metal in their lip.

Pearl blushed. 

“Can I buy you an ice cream?” 

The blue on Pearl’s cheeks deepened still. “Yes, please!” she said, and then remembered she didn’t eat. “Um! I mean, I would love to, uh, go where you’re going. But absorbing food is a human ritual that I- I don’t find very pleasant.”

Shuun burst out laughing, a huge laugh that rumbled, Pearl in its centre.


	4. Ice Cream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chatting about sleeping, eating, earth.   
> More blushing.

“So you can sleep?” 

They’d arrived at the boardwalk and were deep in conversation about the mechanics of bodies.

“Yes. I can even ‘dream’!” Pearl answered. “As I understand it, humans paste together different images and sounds, and make stories in their sleep? And it’s called ‘dreaming’?”

“But you don’t need to sleep?” 

Pearl nodded, “Yes, my body is just-“

“A conscious manifestation of light?”

“Yes.”

"Yeah, I couldn't really forget that one. But what does that mean? How does it work?” Shuun turned to gaze at Pearl. “Also tell me if I’m being inappropriate. Or offensive. I’m following my curiosity and not censoring myself, but I know it can be horrible when people who don’t know anything ask about your body.”

“It’s fine!” Pearl said. Nobody ever asked about her body. “I have never had to explain before. I rarely seek human contact.” 

Shuun snorted. “I see.”

Pearl explained how gems are made, how they crack and shatter. She explained about adopting new forms of being.   
“Normally, gems regenerate to the exact same presentation they had before. Gems are made to serve a purpose and their form is the best form to serve that purpose. But for the Crystal Gems- well, that’s been one of the pleasures of being rebels. Becoming more ourselves.”

 

Shuun checked that Pearl really did not want any ice cream, and went to order some for themself. They came back with strawberry, basil and black pepper sorbet. Vegan.   
The two of them sat down at a blue plastic table, with a view on the sea.   
After tasting it and making faces of delight, Shuun held out the sorbet, offering it to Pearl in case she’d changed her mind.   
She hadn’t.

“Aliens...” Shuun shook their head in fake disapproval, then grinned. They were joking to an alien about alien stuff. A cute alien, too.

“So have you never tasted strawberries?” they asked. 

Pearl breathed in sharply. The smell of the sorbet was familiar, in fact.   
Her eyes filled with water. She turned away.   
Shuun licked their ice cream, looking away as well. 

After a while they said, “I’m sorry. Are you okay?”

Pearl nodded. 

“Did I say something wrong? Is it the food? Would you rather I not eat in front of you?” 

Pearl shook her head, tried to speak. “No, it’s—it’s fine. I just. Strawberries just remind me of something... difficult.”   
She wiped her eyes, the battlefield flashing in her mind, first as it was now, and then when they were in it. All that time ago. Swords glinting. Ground destroyed with fire and force. 

The two looked to the sea in silence for a while, Shuun licking through their sorbet. 

Pearl took in the vivid pink clouds in the huge sky. The sun lined their curves gold. 

She had stayed for Rose.   
Then she’d stayed because there was nothing else to do.   
Because there was Amethyst and Garnet...   
Because there was Rose’s gem, still, there in a living being. Because of Steven. 

As she stared out everything darkened, deep purple blossoming moment by moment.   
Sometimes it felt absurd to stay. Sometimes it felt absurd that nowhere else in the galaxies was home.  
But right now it was okay, being here. Here with the memories. Here, where things pushed out of the ground, pulsing with life, weighed with loss. Roses and strawberries. Here, surrounded by those she loved. Those like her who’d chosen to rebel, to rebuild themselves. Here, where she had still had so much to discover. 

Pearl turned back to Shuun, smiled. A fierce smile.   
Shuun’s heart cracked.

“I want to know you,” they said before they could stop themself. 

They breathed in, back-tracked a little. “Erm, if you, ever like want to talk about it, I’m here.” 

Pearl nodded. “Thank you.”

“Pearl?”

Pearl blushed. Then blushed harder, realising she was flustered at the simple utterance of her name. But Shuun was looking at her and biting their pierced lip, and Pearl felt flooded with feeling. 

“Y-yes?” 

“I’m afraid I have to go, like, now. I’m working in half an hour and I need to change.” 

“Oh!” Pearl said, trying to keep the disappointment out of her face. “Well, I really enjoyed our conversation.”

“Me, too! I wanted to ask you one last thing before I leave,” Shuun put the last bit of the cone in their mouth, swallowed it, stared at Pearl. “Your body is light. I’m still not sure how that works or how you can pick up things, but... Can you feel with it? Like, can you feel heat and cold and the wind?”

Pearl thought and answered tentatively, meandering in her theories of differences between gems and humans. Humans were so much more grounded to their body. For gems body was a way. A way to do things. Gems registered millions of sensations, but not like humans; they did so in a more rational manner, like data.   
But being on earth she’d discovered that body could also be an energy.   
That she could let go of purpose and just explore sensation, allowing even those with no purpose to register. 

She stopped speaking abruptly, realising she had talked a long time. But Shuun had been listening. And was in fact wearing a very wide smile. 

They reached out their hand, eyes in Pearl’s –  
caressed her cheek. 

“I hope to see you very soon,” they said.


	5. #soalien

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garnet is as cool as usual; Pearl and Shuun are texting!

Holo Pearl struck and Pearl dived, turned, brought her sword through. Holo Pearl disappeared in a poof and Pearl threw her sword to the side, cursing.   
She strode across the training ground and only stopped abruptly when she heard Garnet. 

“What’s the matter? I thought you did pretty well.” The gem was slouching on the stands of the arena, looking relaxed. 

“Oh! Garnet. I didn’t see you.” Pearl stood uncertainly. “I just... can’t focus my mind.” 

Garnet zapped her glasses out of existence. Her three eyes sparkled. 

“I think I just had a ‘date’? and it went well?” Pearl said, sounding very distressed. 

“Great!”

“Yes!” Pearl’s voice rang out across the stone ruins. She paced around.   
“How do humans work, Garnet? I thought I knew them, but I think maybe I only know Steven!”

“Yes, Steven is a special being. I’m sure other humans are very different from him. How was the human you met?”

Pearl seemed to give up on something, and went to sit down by Garnet’s side.

“Well, first, they don’t go to bed at fixed times at all! They stand behind a short wall giving out liquids to people! For money! They talk about people who don’t exist as if they existed, and they can describe the universes the people are from as if they had lived there!! They’ve got metal in their lip!!!” Pearl was gesticulating wildly. 

A little smile played on Garnet’s face.

“Why would humans get their soft, breakable flesh pierced with non-organic matter?” Pearl had the horrified expression she usually wore when offered food. 

“Well, why don’t you ask...?

“Shuun-

“Why don’t you ask Shuun?”

 

 

P: Why do humans get their soft, breakable flesh pierced with non-organic matter?

S: r u asking about my piercings?

P: yes.

S: well, the 1st one was to piss off my mom

P: you PEED on your mother?   
P: oh, I googled it  
P: but I still don’t understand. you wanted to hurt your mother so you hurt yourself?

S: oh Pearl. #soalien. it’s not actually bad for you! it only hurt for like 5 secs, and the thing is- it looked cool. it felt good. 

P: how so? 

S: in lots of ways! at the time I don’t think I saw it so clearly, but now I see that it was a lot about taking control of my body. it was something I choose to do, when I was forced into school, forced into getting up every morning, forced into studying science.   
S: forced into being a boy. having short hair.   
S: also, for a boy to get a piercing felt very queer. and that felt right. 

P: I see! thank you for explaining this to me. I think this is what it was like when I first reformed, after rebelling, and I realised in that moment I could do anything! so I reformed with knee high socks.   
P: what’s ‘queer’? 

S: <3  
S: oh dear. Pearl, I can’t explain ‘queer’ right now. I’m too sleepy. google that too, and when we see each other again u can tell me about that + ur socks:)) xo


	6. Food with feelings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shuun hangs out in Pearl's room and meets Steven!

“Hi.” Shuun wore a big smile. Their hair was indigo blue.

“Your hair!” The colour was vivid, rivers merging into each other. 

Shuun opened their arms, and Pearl walked into the hug. Strands of hair by her eyes, purple shadows. Shuun was warm and their huge body wrapped around Pearl, hands on her back, breasts and stomach pressing into her. Pearl wondered briefly if she could catch human heat, because she felt like she was melting. She felt the whole of her against Shuun. She felt how solid her light was. Solid and also soft. They broke apart and Pearl stood, taking it in. Her body felt unanchored, almost like it was disintegrating.

“So, where are we off to?”

“Wow.” Shuun stared up at the temple. It was so beautiful, there was something intimidating about it.  
It looked like one of the huge goddess statues they’d seen on TV, a Hindu deity with many arms. It had the radiance, the serenity, the strength of a goddess, for sure. 

“Hey Pearl?”

“Yes?”

“Is this a real person? I mean, does it represent someone real, or, like a deity? Do gems have religions?”

“It is someone real. But she does not exist right now. Or only inside of us...”

Shuun watched Pearl’s gaze travel along the arm of the temple. They walked up. “Will you tell me more? Sometime?”

Pearl cautiously opened the door.

“Pearl!!!” Steven’s voice rang out. He paused the TV and ran down the stairs, smiling up to his ears.

“Hi Steven. Are Garnet and Amethyst here?”

“No, Garnet said they had some thing to do. And I’m going to try out the kite I made with dad in a second, I was just finishing Crying Breakfast Friends.”

“Oh.” Pearl breathed out. “Good! Um, Steven, Shuun, Shuun, Steven.”

“Hello. I like your hair!”

“Thanks!” Shuun said. “I like yours. Which episode of Crying Breakfast Friends are you watching?”

“Savoury Sadness. Wait, do you know it??” Steven’s eyes in stars, his voice shaking with excitement.

“Yeah! I love that show. Is that the episode where Bacon Strips betray Egg?”

“Yes!!! How could Egg do that?” Steven brought a hand to his chest, frowned majestically. “Do you wanna watch it together sometime?”

“Yeah,” Shuun said, “I would love to! We could watch it while having breakfast.”

Steven jumped up and down a bit. “Wow! Yes! That is a wonderful idea. No wonder Pearl wants to hang out with you, you’re really cool!”

Pearl blushed. Shuun laughed.

“So is this the kite you’re flying?” They pointed to a disheveled object by the door.

“Yes! Ooh, I have to go! Bye!” Steven rushed out of the house.

“Sorry about that, um. He’s very enthusiastic.” Pearl mumbled quickly. “You don’t have to watch that cartoon with him.”

“Don’t worry, I like it! He seems like a great kid.”

“You really think so?”

“Yeah! He seems sweet.”

Pearl smiled wide, her pride written on her face. “It’s nice that you say that. You know, we don’t really know what we’re doing raising him. It’s scary sometimes. But I guess we’re not doing so bad.”

“I don’t think anyone really knows what they’re doing when they raise kids.”

Pearl bit her lip. “But Steven is half gem half human. He is unique. We never know how things will work, with him.”

“I see.” 

Shuun’s eyes traveled over the open space, the kitchen counter, Steven’s messy bed, the frame hung on the wall. Pink curls. Their heart pinched a little; seeing someone who looks so much like them. Someone whose portrait guards the house. They didn’t say anything, though.

“So, are we hanging out here?”

“Oh, no, I wanted to show you my room!”

\---

Pearl led the human into the soft blue space. 

Shuun’s giggle turned into a loud joyful roar.

“This is your room???”

“Yes.” Pearl stepped onto the water, at home, let herself sink and be submerged, rise up again in one of the other flows of water.  
They were like self-sustaining fountains, cascades perfectly organised and of perfect dimentions. The room was full of peace, order, flow.  
She danced her way to the middle one, her favourite. Her body bent, her legs rose, her arms twirled.  
Like the melody inside of her was being played out on her body.  
Shuun watched silently. Awed.  
They hadn’t made friends in a while. It was really overwhelming, meeting new people. Stepping into their lives.

“Why don’t you come up?” Pearl looked down.

“Uh, can I?” Shuun advanced a foot to the water.  
This room made no sense. They only did physics till the end of high school, but that was enough to know that this shouldn’t exist. The water simply flowed down into nothing. It never seemed to hit a bottom. And Pearl was standing on it; that too.

“Right! Sorry.” Pearl came down and took Shuun’s hand. “The temple isn’t made for human bodies. It’s not dangerous for us, but it could be for you...”

“Okay Pearl you are really convincing me to walk on this!” Shuun grimaced at her.

“It’s fine! Just hold my hand.”

“Well, if I get to hold your hand then I guess it’s okay.” Shuun smirked, held their hand out.

Pearl stammered, “Uh, unless you’d rather uh-“

Shuun squeezed her hand and interrupted her. “It’s cool. I was just teasing. Because I am genuinely happy to hold your hand.” They raised Pearl’s hand and kissed the back of it. “Now take me up there.”

\---

 

They sat on a shimmering gold bridge, overlooking the towers of water below. 

“Do you like it?” Pearl suddenly felt self-conscious, held her breath for the answer.

“Yes.”

Shuun leant back. They listened to the cascades, let a smile rise on their face. Happy to be there. 

“Are you okay?” Pearl asked. 

“Hm, yeah.” Shuun covered their face. “Actually, not super good today.”

“What’s the matter?”

“Um, it’s just hard at the moment… I’m staying at my mother’s, and she’s great, like I’m really lucky she’s very supportive. But it’s still not the same kind of environment as I was living before. I haven’t lived here for four years, I’ve been free, I’ve been elsewhere making my own families. I was supported- surrounded- like you seem to be- by people who get me, who understand my experience, who I can talk to. And here- it’s too easy to go back to feeling like the weird kid in town. Different.”

“I see.” Pearl thought back to her first impression of Shuun, how they looked so confident and in control. How Pearl wanted some of that energy, wanted to feel cool, to feel admired. To stop feeling small. Not enough. 

“I’m sorry it’s like that.”

Shuun grimaced, shrugged. “I don’t know if you follow politics, I mean human politics, but things are really shitty at the moment. The people in power have no compassion for those who aren’t like them. They are talking hate, and the people in the country follow that. I don’t- I don’t feel super safe walking around.”

“But you look so fearless!” 

“Yeah, that’s how I deal with it I guess. Put on fucking loud music and Docs and trace through.”

“Why would any one want to hurt you?” Pearl looked genuinely confused. It made Shuun laugh. 

“Don’t tell me it’s just a human thing. Okay, aliens may not have transphobia but surely you don’t all get along? Surely there are people targeted because they’re at the bottom and they’re trying to change things?”

Pearl’s eyes were wide. “Oh.”

“Um, yeah, there are. I guess that’s me.”

“You’re at the bottom?”

“I was. I was a. Pearl. A servant. A gem built to serve a Diamond, my existence meaningless without a leader. I existed to provide, to amuse, to defend. I was nothing on my own.”

“Shit.” 

\---

 

“So they’re after you because you shake the gender system?”

“Yes. But not just that…” Shuun sighed. “See on earth there’s lots of different kinds of oppression. They are subtle, it seems quite different from your world- there is no accepted hierarchy. Instead there is a myth that we are ruling ourselves, that we choose someone to represent us, that anyone can “make it to the top.” Anyway, they’re also after me because of the colour of my skin.”

“No? But your skin is so human!”

Shuun grinned. “They’ve been after us for ever. My people –on my dad’s side, I mean- come from Mexico. They were colonized by the Spanish and their culture was systematically erased and most of them died.”

Shuun paused. “You know, we had slaves, too.”

Pearl cringed at the word.

Shuun took Pearl’s hand, squeezed it. “White people sold black people as slaves. Then slavery was abolished, now the lines are a little more blurred. But the system is still brutally violent. Many still work for nothing. In prisons.” Shuun closed their fist, hard till their knuckles were white.

Pearl shivered. “I thought gems- the gem war- I thought we were the worst.”

There was a silence. Shuun knew there were nightmares in what Pearl wasn’t saying. 

“Want a hug?”

Shuun's stomach, their breath pushed against Pearl, a regular rhythm.  
Something about humans was comforting, Pearl decided. When you forget how their digestive systems work. 

“Hey, I’m a little hungry.” Shuun winked at Pearl. “I know it’s not as classy as containing all the energy you need in a polished shining stone, but it’s my daily struggle.”

 

Shuun bit into the sandwich they made out of what was left in the fridge. They moaned. “Fuck, this is so good.” 

Pearl watched them make varied sounds of joy. She watched them munch the whole thing. 

“Steven also really likes food. I just don’t get it,” she said with a tired sigh. 

“Maybe I should tell you what it feels like,” Shuun closed their eyes. “That sandwich was a perfect blend: a little sweet, some spiky acidy taste, thick nourishing yeasty bread, the fresh, kind of juicy feel of cucumber.” 

Pearl’s eyes were closed too. “Well, I quite enjoy your descriptions. More than I would the cuisine itself, I think.”

Shuun swallowed. “Oh my god Pearl.” They blushed a little. A lovely shade of pink.

The two of them spent the afternoon walking by the sea, going left from the temple and on and on, on little paths that snake over the cliffs and twist on the beach. To Ocean Town.


End file.
